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(NOTE: Alislam Team takes full responsibility for any errors or miscommunication
in this
Synopsis of the Friday Sermon)

Etiquette
of Assemblies

As customary Huzuraba elucidated the
subject in light of the Holy Quran, Surah Al
Mujadilah, (58:10-11) and with reference to several
Ahadith and a few excerpts from the writings of the
Promised Messiah (on whom be peace).

Huzuraba said the Holy Quran enjoins us to be mindful
of others’ sentiment during assemblies, whether they
are family gatherings, business meetings or
religious congregations. Satan is ever on the
lookout to create disorder among people and it is up
to believers to abide by propriety and follow the
prescribed rules, for example the system of the
Jama’at through which one is obliged to obey the
Ameer and to avoid falling prey to dissent, which
sometimes leads to meetings held where rebellious
issues are discussed. Huzuraba instructed one should
always leave such gatherings, explaining that
failing to do so would assume that one is also culpable. Indeed this is the
teaching of the Holy
Prophet (peace and blessings be on him) that was
reinforced by the Promised Messiah (on whom be
peace).

Huzuraba said in today’s multi-cultural society our
youth should be most careful in choosing their
company and should avoid raucous places where people
gather merely for frivolous objectives.

The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings
be on him)
enjoined to be part of peaceable assemblies, whose
attendees’ remind one of God, where one’s spiritual knowledge is
enhanced. He said when people gather in
the mosque for remembrance of Allah tranquillity
descends there. Huzuraba counselled to be mindful of
this during the coming Jalsa days. The Holy Prophet
(peace and blessings be on him) said that the
assembly where people gather and then disperse
without remembrance of God is most inauspicious. The
Holy Prophet (peace and blessings be on him) would
always come to a gathering having ensured that he
did not exude any unseemly smell, he enjoined
against the habit of yawning, which is at times
accompanied by stretching, in public. He counselled
that if two people are sitting and a third person is
also present, the two should not whisper amongst
themselves, that no one should ask another to vacate
a seat so that one may sit there, he enjoined that
it is the obligation of a Muslim to sit
in a way that gives his brother space to sit as
well and that one should not take a seat in a
gathering between two people without their
permission, he also enjoined that if someone
temporarily vacates their seat in an assembly, no
one else has the right to sit there while they are momentarily gone.
The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings be on him) taught that
everything that is said in an assembly is a confidential trust, apart
from when a plan to unlawfully kill someone, plan to
commit immorality or plan to usurp someone is made.
Huzuraba said the proceedings of all meetings are
confidential and no one has the right to betray them
and that this was a basic good manner that all
Ahmadis should be aware of, Huzuraba also stressed the
significance of abiding by the etiquette of assembly
that he had explained in the forth coming Jalsa
Salana.

Huzuraba said that at the conclusion of a gathering
the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings be on him)
would always seek Allah’s forgiveness and that we
should follow this blessed example; seek forgiveness
for having unknowingly said something unseemly in a gathering.